Nursing students’ clinical judgment skills in simulation and clinical placement: a comparison of student self-assessment and evaluator assessment

Background Clinical judgment is an important and desirable learning outcome in nursing education. Students must be able to self-assess their clinical judgment in both the simulation and clinical settings to identify knowledge gaps and further improve and develop their skills. Further investigation is needed to determine the optimal conditions for and reliability of this self-assessment. Aims This study aimed to compare the same group of students’ self-assessment of clinical judgment with an evaluator’s assessment in both simulation and clinical settings. The study further aimed to investigate whether the Dunning-Kruger effect is present in nursing students’ self-assessment of clinical judgment. Methods The study applied a quantitative comparative design. It was conducted in two learning settings: an academic simulation-based education course, and a clinical placement course in an acute care hospital. The sample consisted of 23 nursing students. The Lasater Clinical Judgment Rubric was used to collect data. The scores were compared using a t -test, intraclass correlation coefficient, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and Bland-Altman plots. The Dunning-Kruger effect was investigated using linear regression analysis and a scatter plot. Results The results showed an inconsistency between student self-assessment and evaluator assessment of clinical judgment in both simulation-based education and clinical placement. Students overestimated their clinical judgment when compared to the more experienced evaluator’s assessment. Differences between students’ scores and the evaluator’s scores were larger when the evaluator’s scores were low, indicating the presence of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Conclusion It is vital to acknowledge that student self-assessment alone may not be a reliable predictor of a student’s clinical judgment. Students who had a lower level of clinical judgment were likely to be less aware that this was the case. For future practice and research, we recommend a combination of student self-assessment and evaluator assessment to provide a more realistic view of students’ clinical judgment skills.